Text and Pics - Paul Topping

We decide to walk from Tribeca to the High Line northwards along the Hudson waterfront in New York. We are heading to the development of an old railway track into a lovely walk. This part of the waterfront is predominantly piers and industrial. After walking for twenty minutes in the sun, we hailed a cab. As happens so many times on our travels, we find the driver to be of Sri Lankan origin and very chatty. 

The rail tracks have gone, and now it’s a very pleasant elevated walk on the west side of Manhattan. In some places, the walk is twenty-plus feet above the road.

The High Line was created in 2009, utilizing the disused elevated railway that runs for just short of one and a half miles. It is now a lush horticultural public park with artwork and interesting buildings, young and old. There are great industrial views, the Hudson River, and the commercial jetties. We can see some of the streets of Greenwich.  

There is some street graffiti and many opportunities to do more on the many blank walls, which would further enhance the park. Imagine if Banksy did a wall. His exhibition was in town, and he has some artwork around New York. This walk is a must-do if you have time in the Big Apple. It is a great example of American creativity and execution. Even in this lower tourist month for the cit,y it’s quite a busy track. I would hate to do it when it’s hectic, as even now families walk four abreast, blocking others from passing.

Not far away on the Hudson River is the site where the plane came down in 2009. An amazing captain, an ex-fighter pilot, saved 155 lives by making all the right decisions in a short span of time. President Biden appointed him as an ambassador to the International Aviation Organization.

In front of us is one of the ugliest modern structures I have seen in a long time, The Vessel, with a one-mile vertical walk of 2,500 steps. I have seen this open-style building a few times, but never seen anyone walking the steps. With four suicides on the site, the owners closed it for a while, pondering its future. It reopened in 2024.

The Hudson Yards shopping mall next door, however, is amazing, according to Jezzabel, and I know I’m going to get dragged around the shops. Time for a coffee, a fatal decision. We go to Jack’s coffee place. Two dizzy staff. I order the drinks, one flat white and one weak latte. The paper cup is not so big, and it’s not the smallest one they have. The two staff operate from two different counters, and there is confusion between them. I want to pay and take my coffee. They will not accept my fifty-dollar note I use my credit card. They return with a slip asking what level of tip I want to give. I cross it out. They give me my card and receipt. There are no chairs in the place, I sit by the escalator in the middle of the mall. My phone pings, damn them, they have added a tip to the coffee bill anyway.

The Whinging Pome Random Rule 246. When the product, the staff, and the service are poor, you have to make a fuss.

Above the shopping mall, there is a location called “The Edge”,  the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, with a 100th-floor glass ledge to walk out on. I am a bit skeptical about these sorts of places, even more so when they charge $50 for the experience. Well, I am pleasantly surprised. A very fast lift with amazing graphics, spectacular views, and well organised. You can stand on a glass floor and look down 100 floors below, or look out at spectacular views of the waterfront.

The aircraft carrier Intrepid sits majestically along pier 86. It is full of military exhibitions, plus a Concorde plane. There were only twenty made, and I managed two flights, one a promo and one to Barbados. Looking back not so comfortable, but the flight time advantages. Next to the Intrepid is the nuclear submarine Growler. Once inside, an ex-Navy guide says, “Hold up your mobile phones.” We do, and he explains that they had less than half the navigational capability in their submarines in 1958 than our phones today. They were operating in the oceans of the world.  

We completed three months in the Big Apple and now have some great New York friends. Subsequently, they have all come to Sri Lanka on holiday, and we have toured the paradise island I call home.